The Sales Professional

Most of you have probably had both good and bad experiences with sales professionals.  Buying a car is my least favorite experience.  Buying a sleep number bed however was a dream!  Buying a tractor falls somewhere in the middle.

Tractor salesmen and dealerships, assuming you have chosen one with an long and respectable track record in the ag-community, is NOT like a car dealership.  Cars are a volume game, which leads to high pressure tactics.  Plus, everyone NEEDS a car, but even full time farmers could hire someone else to do all the work and supply the equipment.  Tractor salesmen aren’t just trying to sell lots of units, they want to make positive margins and they want to solve specific customer problems.  They won’t play the “what payment can you afford game?” in most cases.  They may ask your budget, but their goal will be to get you in a tractor that fits your needs, one that won’t be overkill and one that won’t leave you wanting more, along with all the implements needed to do the jobs you wish to do.

If you are in a tractor dealership and it starts feeling like that really bad car dealership feeling you had a few years back, leave.  There are plenty of farm equipment dealers that don’t play like that.  There is generally not the back and forth haggle process in the tractor business.  Dealers know what margins they need to stay in business, they don’t get huge manufacturer kickbacks, and they want satisfied, repeat customers.

Most sales reps in the tractor industry have a farm or construction background.  They have literally run the equipment on their own farms or farms they have worked on.   While their interest is to sell you equipment, most of them are great sources of first hand information on operation and maintenance.

That said, when you walk into a farm dealership, leave those bad sales rep experiences behind you.  While it isn’t unheard of, you will rarely find the sleazy, gum chewing, “WHATS IT GONNA TAKE TO GET YOU IN A (WHATEVER) TODAY???!!!” types.  Ask lots of questions.  Like your farm neighbors, most ag-sales reps are anxious to share their knowledge with open minded newbies who are willing to listen.

Admit you know nothing.

Tires: The “What” and the “Why”

Tires are a very important consideration in the tractor buying process.   The right tires can be the difference between a job done right and a job done UGLY.

There are three basic tractor options available on most tractor models.  Agricultural tires (R1), turf tires (R3), and industrial tires (R4).

The agricultural tire tread is what you see on farm tractors out in the fields.  This tread is the most aggressive tread as it is typically used in heavy applications.   An agricultural tire, which you may also hear referred to as an R1, is great if you only plan to use your tractor in mucky barnyards, the woods, or in the fields.  They are great for keeping tractors from getting stuck.  They are not so great for keeping a lawn free of ruts.

That said, our next tire option is the turf tire, also referred to as the R3 in industry circles.  A turf tire offers a smooth, even tread, designed with manicured lawns in mind.  If your main goal is heavy yard work or maintaining your own mini-golf course, this is the tire you want, as it will not degrade your nice, even, manicured turfgrass.  If you take these tires into your muddy pasture though, you may end up on your cell phone calling Farmer Fred to come pull you out with his ag-tire tractor.

That brings us to our THIRD choice, a tire option that offers the best of both worlds!  The industrial tire, known in industry circles as an R4 and sometimes a “bar” tire due to the way the tread looks, is what I like to call a “middle of the road” tire.  It offers a pronounced, but flat tread bar that can give your tractor better traction than a turf tire, but without the aggressiveness of agricultural tires.  The R4 is a great tire for multi-use tractors among budget minded users.  If you can afford a dedicated lawn and garden machine for your nice grass and a farm tractor for your dirty work, I recommend turf tires on the lawn unit and ag tires on the farm unit.  For obvious reasons, the industrial tread has become quite popular due to its hybrid nature.

Agricultural Tires:  Pros- Stay unstuck, better traction in varying field conditions, helps maximize efficiency in field operations, best tire available in the snow.  Cons- aggressive tread is not good for lawns, tread wears out quickly on hard surfaces (cement, pavement).

Turf Tires:  Pro- Will not hurt your grass or create ruts in your yard.  Cons- Not good for much else unless it is a perfectly dry day.

Industrial Tires:  Pros- middle of the road tire between turf and ag.  Won’t destroy lawns.  Won’t wear out as fast on hard surfaces, great for concrete barnyards or loading docks.  Offers enough traction for off-road conditions.  Cons- Simply is not an ag-tire.  Simply is not a turf tire.  In an ideal world, you would own one dedicated machine for manicured ground with turf tires, and one dedicated machine for ag-applications equipped with ag-tires.  Barring the ability to do the aforementioned, industrial tread tires are a good option.

The Dealership

I cannot stress to you enough the importance of a good dealership in regards to your tractor and implement buying and OWNING experience.

I don’t care if you are a master mechanic/engineer.  You will need your dealership AFTER the sale to remain a happy equipment owner.  Sure, you can do your own maintenance, but most of you will not.  If a bigger problem arises, will you have the tools, knowledge, and resources to make the fixes on your own?  Most likely not.  If you do, where will you buy your parts?

While my goal here is not to steer you towards any particular brand, I do recommend trying to work with the dealership in your area that has the best reputation for service.   While it isn’t always true, the guy that has been in town  for decades and is still big among the rank and file farm community is most likely your guy too.  If that business can maintain machines and customer service when big money is on the line (like crops that must come in NOW or narrow planting windows), they can surely cover you when your weekend warrior machines need work.

Ask around.  Who has the best reputation for quality?  Which dealer will take calls from working farmers at midnight when a combine is broke down in a field?  Who stays open the latest on Saturdays?  Who has the least amount of turnover among mechanics and parts personnel?   You will be amazed at how frankly your local farmers will answer these questions.

Remember, any dealer can sell you a tractor and implements, but who will help you when you have a question on operation, adjustments, or need parts or service in a pinch?  Start asking around before you start shopping!

Transmission options!

Just like your car, a tractor has a transmission.  There are two basic transmission options in tractors:  hydrostatic and gear drive.

In most of your compact utility tractors, you will find dealers stocking hydrostatic transmissions.  This is because the market has spoken.  Most folks drive automatic cars and the tractor hydrostatic offers similar simplicity.  Basically, you have a high range (fast) and a low range (slow, but torque-full) and two pedals, one for forward and one for reverse.

From a learning standpoint, hydrostatics are very easy to operate.  From a functionality standpoint, unless you are serious about doing farm work like baling, a hydro is probably fine.  They are far less problematic than they used to be as so many of them are out there on the market today.

A gear driven tractor is akin to a manual transmission car.  You press a clutch and you pick your gear.  The advantage to this in farm work is the ability to pick a speed and stay with it   while doing a certain task.   The manufacturers have made the job of shifting easier by building better clutch packages and adding a mechanism called a “reverser” to many models.  The reverser allows the operator to toggle a lever (usually near the steering wheel), which allows him to go from forward to reverse without pressing the clutch in or touching his gear levers.  This is an especially nice feature when you are doing loader work such as moving a pile of dirt or unloading pallets from a truck.

If you are serious about farm work, my recommendation is a 12/12 or 16/16 Reverser transmission.  There are cheaper options and there are more expensive options, but if you are springing for a 65 PTO horsepower or better tractor (ex: John Deere 5000 series), it is best to have this style of transmission.   Keep in mind that smaller compact utility tractors typically all come with hydro transmissions, which are nice for what I call “yard work on a grand scale”, but tend to lack the power and versatility needed for field work along with the ass for heavy grunt work.

Visit a dealer and have them show you how the transmissions work and give them a try.  Don’t be afraid, once you have the basic idea, tractor transmissions are easy to understand.

The Loader, The tool you didn’t know you needed

Over the years as an equipment salesmen, many a newbie tractor buyer came to me insisting all they needed was a tractor with a mower deck.  They saw no use for a loader.  Though I always TRIED to convince them that a loader is the most versatile tool on the farm, most of them bought what they wanted.  Six months to a year later, they would call and ask me to sell them a loader for their tractor.

For those unfamiliar, a loader in the thing that goes on the front of the tractor, is often equipped with a scoop, known in industry circles as “a bucket”, and allows the tractor to lift heavy objects like dirt, rocks, logs, bricks, dead pigs, you name it!

The loader runs off of the tractor’s hydraulic system.  On new tractors, you will find most equipped with a joystick (think Pac Man) that controls the loader functions.  Loaders have two basic functions run by two separate hydraulic valves:  Boom Up/Boom Down- this is the action the long arms of the loader make to lift the boom and bucket into the air and bring it back down to the ground.  Second, Bucket Roll-which is the action that causes the bucket to rock backwards when picking something up, and to rock forwards when dumping.  If this sounds complicated, it is not.

The bottom line is, if you are going to spend money on a tractor, BUY A LOADER.  ”But it will just be in the way!” is what you’re thinking.  First, loaders are easy to take on and off of tractors these days compared to just twenty years ago and most are freestanding units, meaning you don’t need a special rack or hoist for storing them.  They just sit there on their own two legs and bucket until you are ready to connect again.   Second, the amount of things you’ll be able to move with a loader will help you create all the space you need to justify storing a loader when you are not using it.

Loaders can also be fitted with various front end attachment such as pallet forks (like a forklift), spears that pick up heavy round hay bales, and various buckets depending on the job you need to do.  You can even put a snow blade on your loader!  Loaders are like having a ladder or scaffolding readily available for house and barn projects (though I urge caution among new operators in trying this).  Loaders cut out wheelbarrows, armloads, hand carts, and dollies.  ”Go grab the loader tractor” is a common phrase around every working farm I have ever been on.  Don’t waste you back and your knees!  Buy a loader up front.  You will not even realize how many things you can do with one until you are out there working on your farm.

Hydraulics: The life blood of the tractor and implement combo!

A very important, but often overlooked aspect of tractors among newbies is the hydraulic system.   Most tractors have a series of outlets that are called any of the following:  Selective control valves (SCV’S), hydraulic outlets, outlets, hydraulics, remotes, and hydraulic services to name a few.  These valves are often located in the mid section of the tractor under the floor board or in the rear of the tractor.  The mid-mounted valves are typically used to control a front end loader and the rear valves are used to actuate hydraulic functions on rear implements.  Small tractors usually have the option of two mid valves and two rear valves, though some sub compact models only offer one or no rear valves.

You will use the rear mounted valves to power such things as wood splitters, the angling cylinder on a blade for grading, wings on a batwing mower (larger applications), the gate on a round baler, and any other implement function that requires hydraulic actuation.

The way hydraulics work are by forcing oil at high pressure through special rubber hoses and into metal cylinders that extend when filled with oil and retract when the pressure is let off.  The hydraulic levers on your tractor are most likely located on the right hand console.   If you have more than one set of valves in the rear, the control and the valves will most likely be marked with a roman numeral 1 and 2.  While it is not uncommon for large farm tractors to have three, four, and even five sets of valves, this is not common, and rarely necessary in smaller applications.  Most folks can get away with two mid valves for a loader and one or two rear valves for implement applications.

What the heck is a three point hitch?

The three point hitch is the set of arms on the back of your tractor.  There are two side arms and one top arm known as the “top link”.  The three point hitch attaches to corresponding pins on your implements and allows them to be lifted up and down via the tractor’s hydraulic system.  There is a lever on the side console of the tractor that controls this function.  On most tractors you can even change the speed of how fast the implement comes up and down.

When will you use this?  The most common time I can think of is if you are doing grading with a rear blade, but there are hundreds of implements that are raised and lowered with the three point hitch.

WARNING:  NEVER EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER should you hook a chain or rope to your three point hitch in an attempt to tow or pull something out of the ground.  You can use your tractors drawbar for this, but NEVER the three point hitch as it is too high on the tractors center of gravity and could cause you to flip over at worst, or it could at best damage the three point hitch.